All by Myself
by PokebratJ
Summary: Weiss Schnee believes herself to be the Loneliest of All. But what if someone, or something, decided to show her what true loneliness really was, in the form of the Capital Wasteland? What could she do, would be willing to do, to survive in this lonely, desperate world of chaos and hardships.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Growing Up**

* * *

It was just another warm day at the exalted Beacon Academy, by far the best school for Huntsmen and Huntresses around. All throughout Vale, people still a bit fearful from the incident involving Mountain Glenn and the Grimm, but everything was back to how it was before, with everyone living their lives as though nothing happened.

In all honesty, that was exactly how humanity had developed in order to survive. Ignore the negative, focus on the positive and mundane. To most societies, this would not be healthy at all. Unfortunately, on Remnant, this is a trait picked up to help their society's chance of survival.

Unfortunately, the Defenders of Humanity, those Hunters and Huntresses of the Creatures of Grimm, could not partake in something so ingrained in everyday life lest they suffer. Aura is one of, if not _the_, greatest advantage that they have, letting their very souls protect and heal them. But if they were to ignore, to suppress the darker side of their emotions, their Aura becomes affected negatively. Sometimes it doesn't heal them after getting injured, sometimes it ends up failing to shield the body from random attacks, their Semblances could 'malfunction,' or, quite possibly one of the worst scenario, it just… turns off for an unknown amount of time. It is not healthy for Hunters and Huntresses to bottle up their emotions, otherwise the thin line of defence will wane.

Weiss Schnee was standing in a secluded part of the city of Vale, a place she found early on in her time there for those occasions in which she just needs to… get away from it all. It was quiet, almost nobody seemed to know about it, and it had a beautiful view. Today she was doing her own version of stress relief, a way to unwind and to let loose all of that negativity, all that fear and anger and sorrow that builds up. She was rehearsing a song and dance.

Had there been anyone around to see or hear this masterful performance, they would have been mesmerized, as the young Heiress was quite literally pouring her heart and soul into this.

Her team was away, the two sisters asking to have help from their Faunus team member for studying. While it would have hurt Weiss that they didn't want her to help, she understood why it had to be so. She was, admittedly, not the best when it came to teaching. When she did so, she expected it to just _click_, for them to understand exactly what was coming out of her mouth as it was coming out. Blake, meanwhile, was much more patient, being able to translate what the complex words meant into bite-sized chunks that were easy to digest.

Still, it gave her time to go to her favorite spot in the city to unwind on a beautiful day. She had went through a number of songs before deciding to rehearse one of her favorites, one that just… spoke to her on a deep level.

"_Mirror, tell me something.  
Tell me who's the loneliest of all?"_

She started off slow, each movement taking its time to reach its destination.

"_Mirror, tell me something.  
Tell me who's the loneliest of all?"_

Her speed increased, as did the strength behind the words, them sounding less airy and much more firm.

"_Mirror, what's inside of me.  
Tell me can a heart be turned to stone?"_

She flew, leaping into the hair as a mental hand flew across a mental piano, and then slowing down as she just let her voice go, free of words and changing notes as dictated.

"_Mirror, mirror, what's behind you?  
Save me from the things I've seen!"_

Her dance became quicker, more erratic but no less elegant as to match the tempo of the instruments playing within her head.

"_I can keep it from the world  
Why won't you let me hide from me?"_

She threw spins into the mix, her feet not touching down on one spot for more than a second.

"_Mirror, mirror, tell me something.  
Who's the loneliest of all?"_

She stopped at that part, her pose lowering as she prepared to sing the last line.

"_I'm the loneliest of all."_

Her final words rung in the air before fading away, leaving silence to once again-

_*Clap Clap clap*_

She spun around quickly, finding the source of the clapping to be a man, a Faunus if the goat horns protruding from his skull to be any indication, sitting on the nearby bench. She mentally chided herself for being so distracted that someone easily went by unnoticed.

"That was beautiful," he said to her, a toothy grin on his face. "Completely mesmerizing performance. Have you considered going into showbiz?"

"Well, thank you for compliments, but I'd rather not get _that_ type of publicity," she said. Hard enough being a Schnee that wanted to be a Huntress, the gossipers on Atlas television were more than eager to use it as a publicity stunt for the company. She didn't want to know what would happen if she had decided to be just another pretty face with a good voice.

"Understandable, understandable. Here, I got some water if you're thirsty. Poor throat might need it." He offered to her just a normal, unopened plastic water bottle, which she graciously accepted. A small part of her questioned why she was doing so, but was a bit too thirsty too care. She sat down beside him on the bench and drank carefully.

"Hey, I gotta ask," he started. "On that last song, you really threw your everything into it. Makes me wonder, do you really think that about yourself?"

"... I feel like it did, like it does sometimes. Before Beacon, I was trapped in a gilded cage where I got everything I wanted, but I never really had anyone I could consider a friend," she said, surprising herself with how forthcoming she currently was with a complete stranger. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Oh, right. Call me R.O.B. And I'm pretty sure I know who you are, ma'am." Ah, yes, of course he would know about a Schnee, seeing as how vocal some news stations are about Faunus treatment. But his name. Something seemed… off about it.

"Well, Rob, I must thank you for the water, but-"

"You really aren't the loneliest, you know," he interrupted. "You've never known what it's like to be truly alone in your life."

"Ex-_cuse_ me," she squawked indignantly.

"It's just like I said, you've never been alone, truly alone." He looked her in the eyes, icy blue meeting yellow and purple. "You've had your butler there for you, taking the role of a loving uncle. Klein cared for you more than he did his own family, you know. Your sister Winter is always willing to lend you a shoulder and a smile, always there to support you. Honestly, she's pretty cool, pun not intended. Your mother was pretty big in your life until _that _little incident."

Weiss stood there, flabbergasted at what she was hearing. This was personal information regarding her family, her _life_! And a complete stranger was talking about it like no big deal!

"I mean, there are plenty people who are worse off than you," he continued. "Your teammate, Blake, the poor thing, basically ran away from home to join a terrorist organization, in which she eventually betrayed her only friends and mentor/lover and was forced to hide who she was in a completely foreign place, lest she be treated as a beast. Please close your mouth, you might swallow a fly. Your Headmaster is an _excellent_ example, but I probably shouldn't spoil that little surprise. But I think by far the worst one off that you personally know would have to be your poor, poor little brother." At this point, she was standing over him, drenched in both rage and confusion as to how he knew what he did. And what did her little tit of a brother have to do with any of this?

"After all you _did _abandon him." She was too shocked at the accusation to do anything other than stare. "You see, while you and Winter were supporting each other, poor little Whiteley had no one. Mother went recluse before he could remember his first words. Klein, while he did a majority of raising him, favored you much more than he did the little Prince. Didn't help that you actively avoided him, and by then Winter was away for military more often than not. And while you were living in a gilded cage, at least you had tasted freedom. All he ever had were nods when he did something good, and the back of Daddy's hand when he doesn't."

Her mind raced, trying to see a hole in his impossible logic, but couldn't. Had she really been that bad a sister, to never see how bad he really had it? _How_ could it not cross her mind that it wasn't _just_ her that had been hurt under-

"You know, now that I think about it, Daddy dearest seems to be cause most of your problems," he said, snapping her out of her thoughts and leaving her to feel… small, as small as she always did when Father was brought up. "I mean, he was already quite the piece of work before you added 'authoritarian dick of a father' to that list. I mean, it's a wonder you only have the one scar." He stopped a bit, letting the feeling sink in, watching her as she trembled under her memories.

"But what if I could change that," he said with a fanged grin.

And just like that, his words washed away all of her negative feelings, leaving only… something she couldn't quite place. "W-what," she weakly asked.

"You heard me," he said, getting up to stand on his cloven hooves. "What if I could change that? Give you a father that really, _truly _loves you, who would give up his own dream just so you could have a chance of a happy life? But the real question is, 'would you be interested?'"

She said nothing for a few seconds, just absorbing his words. A part of her, the logical part, was telling her to just walk away, go back to her dorm and find a new spot to do her little ritual, anywhere other than here. Unfortunately, the rest of her didn't listen, too entranced by the man in front of her and his words. "If I am?"

"Quite simple, really. New life, same body and memories. And when your time in that new life is done, you'll come right back to this one, with little time passing."

His tail flicked behind him, waiting for her to reach out and accept his hand. After some thought on her end, she accepted. And in that moment, the fog within her mind cleared, and she could truly see the monster before her.

"W-what are you," she screeched in fear, attempting desperately to get her hand free and run away. But she couldn't.

"Call me R.O.B." he said coyly, a shit eating grin on his face as his other hand rose upwards. "Its an acronym. _Random Omnipotent Being._" He snapped his fingers, and her world went dark.

* * *

All she could see was black. All she could feel were the walls of her warm prison. All she could hear extremely muffled sounds, with no way to discern what was what. She couldn't smell or taste anything, a layer of something surrounding her prevented that.

It didn't take long for Weiss to realize that she was inside of a womb.

Constantly she berated herself for not realizing what that… _thing_ was sooner, but every time she thought back on what had transpired, she couldn't remember everything clearly. She could remember what he said to her perfectly, but couldn't recall what he looked like

So she spent her time, waiting to be born again, by thinking over R.O.B.'s words, because they were undoubtedly true. To use something along the lines of what Yang would say, she had been a complete shit. She had taken so much for granted, and only blinded herself to be bad that was hurting her that she never saw the bad that _she _was causing. She had seen so much of her Father in Whiteley, so much of his influence, that she had actively avoided him to the point where the only one who paid any real attention to her little brother was Father himself.

The moment she gets out of this… "second life," if this whole thing was even real, she was going to do her damndest to make things right with him.

But she wasn't going to focus on that right now. No, right now, she felt something happening. After what could have been either weeks or minutes, seeing as how she had basically no concept of time when within the womb, she was finally being born.

This… was not going to be pleasant…

In order to spare you some of the… less sightly events of childbirth, we'll just focus on the main stuff. Like how her eyes were blinded, causing her to reflexively cry out in pain and shock.

Eventually, she could make out outlines, and then full blown images. What looked like a female doctor was holding her, cutting what seemed to be her umbilical cord_. Good, those things weirded me out anyway. And why am I thinking this I WAS JUST BORN! HOW AM I NOT FOCUSING ON THAT!_ Of course, her thoughts were translated as cries for all those not fluent in the language of the infants.

"Congrats, James, it's a girl," the doctor said, confirming that they were probably female. When you are raised amongst Atlas' finest, you end up seeing some very strange sights that make you question the simple things.

As the assumed doctor moved out of the way, she could make out another figure, though this one was male. Unfortunately, she couldn't see him all that clearly, seeing as how this was technically the first time using her eyes.

"Did you hear that Catherine? It's a girl! A beautiful, healthy baby girl!" His voice seemed familiar to the reincarnated Huntress, but she couldn't exactly recall what. And then her new mother spoke.

"Oh… Oh James… We did it… A daughter… Our beautiful daughter…"

That was the voice of her real mother, of Willow Schnee. It was the voice she had wanted to hear for years, one that wasn't drowning in alcohol and sorrow, one that actually _sounded_ like she loved Weiss.

"Look at you, look at you… Hi there, I'm your daddy, sweetheart. Daddy" her new father cooed, his voice pulling her out of her thoughts and seemed to have calmed down Weiss' nerves. _Yeah, I'm not calling you that, ever._ Even as an infant, she will not stoop down to her partner's level of childishness. "You've got a bright future ahead of you, Weiss."

Huh, so she wasn't going to get a new name? Well that's fortuitous, as it would have taken so long to get used to that name. Then again, she was just born, so she would have had time to get used to one. And maybe now she could get the chance to spend time with her new mo-

"James! James… Something's… Something's…"

_Oh no…_

"Cathrine! Catherine!" _No no no! Not again! I don't want to lose another one!_ "She's in cardiac arrest! Start compressions! And get the baby out of here!"

Weiss started crying out as the woman from before came in and carted her away. She heard the man, her new father, trying to do… something to help the dying woman. But Weiss was slowly losing consciousness, fading off soon after into sleep, her throat sore.

* * *

**[One Year Later]**

* * *

"Come on, walk to Daddy."

Weiss was visibly struggling as she moved her tiny, chubby baby legs. After years of perfecting her balance with dance and ice skating, it irked her to no end that she still had problems walking in this new form. Sure, most infants are masters of walking at 14 or 15 months, like her "friend" Amata, but she was not most infants.

Honestly, she blacked out of consciousness to find her body on autopilot so often that she "woke up" one day as friends to a Vacuonian looking baby named Amata. Admittedly, she had fun playing with babies, but it got a little old after a while.

But after setting one foot in front of the other, she eventually made it to him within the playpen.

"There you go! My goodness! Just a year old and already walking like a pro," he congratulated, making Weiss feel good about her progress. It has been a tough four months, but she was getting it down.

Her father's Pipboy beeped as it received a notification. As far as she could tell, Pipboys were like rudimentary Scrolls, but without the power problems (seeing as she has never seen anyone charge them) as a pro and lacking half the features as a con. One of the things that stayed the same seemed to be messaging a tagged Pipboy so long as it was within range.

{Doctor James Schnee, you're needed at the clinic. Looks like Edgar Wolfe had a bad fall in the Atrium.}

"Damn," he muttered. "Sorry, sweetheart, but Daddy's been called for work. I know you don't like it when Daddy leaves you alone, but I'll be back in a few minutes, alright?" He bent over and kissed her on the forehead before leaving the room, the door quietly closing behind him.

Weiss watched him leave, at least partially relieved that he had left. To be completely honest, it was still hard, getting used to her new father, still getting used to the _idea _of a new father. But James was nothing but kind and loving parent, a far cry from what Father had been. And that is including the fact that whenever he isn't in the Vault Clinic, he was spending it with her.

And that's another thing of note, this Vault. Vault 101, her new "home."

She didn't know why she and so many others were living in a massive underground Vault, or how long it's residents have lived in it, but it was unnerving. From what she could tell, she was still unnaturally pale by these people's standards, and the complete lack of sunlight wasn't helping, and that wasn't getting into a whole other mess of things that could be potential health problems. That brought up a bunch of questions, like;

"_Why are we in this Vault?" _

"_What is happening outside the Vault?" _

"_What is the point of all of this?"_

All these and many others, but the most important one is this.

_I'm bored, what is there to do._

Yes. It seems as though she has also gained a child's complete lack of patience, which bothered her to no end.

Eventually, using her teenager brain, she figured a way out of the pin that father oh so cleverly closed. And since she wasn't large enough to neither press the opening mechanism nor activate the motion sensor to the room's door, she was stuck in the bedroom. Joy.

It was a fairly modest room, only sporting a bed, a crib, some dressers, the playpen, a bookshelf, and a large chest of toys. And the nicest thing in the room had to be the picture of the bible quote, Revelations 21:6, that her new mother had seemingly loved. She didn't know exactly what a bible was yet, but she saw her father read it a few times when he thought that Weiss was asleep.

She practiced her walking for a good few minutes before stumbling onto the rug covered ground. She was going to get up when she noticed something in front of her, a children's book titled "You're SPECIAL!"

It was definitely not here a minute ago. She couldn't even recall ever owning it.

Playing into her curiosity, she opened the book to find that it was just another children's book. She was about to close it at the last page when she saw something weird. There were numbers _adding themselves in._

As any sane person is wont to do, she chucked that thing as far as she could, which only amounted in throwing it behind the toy chest.

It was at that moment that the door opened, revealing her father looking just a bit more tired than usual.

"Ha ha ha! You're quite the little explorer, aren't you? Serves me right for trying to pen you in," he joked, rubbing his hand on her head affectionately, that Weiss playfully swatted away, for some reason the whole deal with the book escaping her mind. She started to walk around the room, albeit a bit struggled in her effort.

"Alright, alright, you want to test out your walking. Let's go see if your friend Amata wants to play, hmm?" Weiss slowly shifted her head from side to side, thinking it out before nodding yes. Maybe the fellow toddler would keep her distracted.

And as the two of them left the room, neither saw the book disappear.

* * *

**[Nine Years Later]**

* * *

"SURPRISE!"

A ten year old Weiss covered her eyes, momentarily blinded by the sudden lights of the cafeteria. When her eyes finally adjusted to it, she could see a modest amount of people surrounding her, and the decorations...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" It took a second for her to realize what was going on.

"It's my birthday?"

"Of course, sweetheart," her dad said, chuckling at her. "And now, you're ten! I'm so proud of you. If only-" Whatever he was about to say was cut off as the Overseer, Alphonse Almodovar, interrupted with

"Congratulations, young lady," he said, sounding like he's been through this more than a few times but still has to act chipper. Probably because he already had. "I don't have to tell you how special this day is, now, do I? Down here in Vault 101 when you turn ten, well, you're ready to take on your first official Vault responsibilities. So here you are." He pulled out a Pipboy, something that she knew about very well at this point, seeing as nearly everyone else had one, and gave it to her. "As Overseer, I hereby present to you your very own Pipboy 3000. Get used to it… You'll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow."

Weiss ignored that last bit, instead undoing the latch on the side and putting it on. She felt a small sting after doing so, which her dad noticed.

"Just the life monitoring system. It will get better, I promise. But go enjoy your party. You're only ten once, so have fun." _For you maybe,_ she bitterly thought for a second.

In all honesty, it was strange how used to this underground life she was getting. At first, she had thought that it would never stick, but was proven wrong. In fact, she had come to like life in the Vault. There weren't the constant expectations of home, nor the constant danger of the Grimm, or anything else like that. Sure, there were times when she missed it all, when the steel grey walls seemed too suffocating, when she missed the feel of the sun on her face or the feel of the wind. But learning that the world was bathed in nuclear fire was a very good incentive for staying inside.

Oh yes, she learned quite a lot in this new world, Earth. To be honest, she was mostly interested in learning about the history and science of this world. It seemed so interesting, an entire world with no Dust, no Grimm, no Faunus, just humanity and it's unrestrained creativity and willpower. It was both fascinating what they could accomplish and horrifying what they did to themselves.

But that wasn't currently on her mind right now, it was her friend coming over, wrapping her arm over the girl's shoulder.

"Happy birthday, Weiss," Amata told her friend, a lopsided paper birthday hat sitting on her hat. "We really surprised you, huh? You looked about ready to run when Stanley turned on the light!"

"Of course I was surprised, you dolt," Weiss playfully said. "I completely forgot it was today!"

"Well then it looks like your dad's fears were null and void! He thought you were onto us, but I told him not to worry. You're so easy to fool."

"Is that so, huh? I may have to keep that in mind when it's your turn next. But seriously, thanks for the party."

"No problem, Weiss. And to be honest, your dad did most of the hard work. I just set up the decorations."

"That certainly explains everything."

"Oh shut it," Amata giggled. "Hey, I bet you can't guess what I got you as a present! Go on, guess!"

"Hmm," she hummed, holding her chin. "I haven't the foggiest idea."

"Ha! Knew I'd surprise you! Who's your favorite vigilante? That's right, the Silver Shroud! Issue 37! And with no missing pages!" With that, she pulled out the comic from behind her and handed it to the white haired girl.

Ah, yes, it was her new guilty pleasure. The SIlver Shroud. Her teammates on team RWBY would most certainly never let her hear the end of it if they learned about this, but she didn't care. It seems as though she has developed a love for the noir genre as a whole, and was going to download more than a few of the radio serials in the Vault archives after figuring out how. Sure, a lot of the lines and plots were cheesy as all hell, but she had fun. Admittedly, last Halloween, she used her dad's lab coat to dress as the vigilante while Amata showed all her love of Grognak.

No one from Remnant must ever learn of her newfound dorky side.

And that was admittedly one of the things she loved about life here, the little freedoms. The lack of decorum except only in serious gatherings, being free to like whatever she wanted, and to just… act like a kid for once.

"Thanks _sooooooo _much Amata! Where did you even find this?"

"In a box with all of my father's things, believe it or not. Imagine him reading comic books!" Indeed, the image of the ever serious Overseer going giddy at the thought of comics caused the two of them to laugh a bit. "Well, I guess I better let you go back to "mingling" with your guests! We'll talk later, okay?"

"Sure," Weiss said as her friend walked off. She was about to

Butch, Paul, and Wally were dead set on making fun of her and Amata for no reason other than making themselves feel bigger. Honestly, Weiss could understand with Butch a bit, knowing what she does about his mom's… habits, but the other two just joined on the bandwagon one day and seemed to just stick. That one of their group was standing there, _not_ harassing her was interesting.

"Hey, uh, thanks for inviting me," Paul said, looking as awkward as the two of them felt. "Really cool party and everything. I know that, uh, Butcha and I give you a hard time, but you don't take any of that seriously, right? Anyway, uh, happy birthday and everything. I better go back to, you know…"

"What, is she your best friend, now? Hey Wally, I think Paul's in lo~ove," Butch DeLoria taunted from a booth a few seats over.

"Yeah Paul, why don't you introduce us to your new _girlfriend_," the third stooge, Wally Mack, joined in.

Weiss looked over to Amata, who just shrugged in response. So that means either someone else invited them, or they just let themselves in. She _really _hoped it was the latter.

Paul blushed a bit, which was well hidden, and scoffed. "Who, you mean dorkface over here? Happy Birthday, dorkface."

In response, Weiss just scoffed and walked towards one of the people she knew that she would enjoy talking to. Stanley, the pipboy technician. If she were to compare him to anyone, she could confidently say that the man reminded her a lot of Klein. Granted, he didn't have the multiple color eyes nor the multiple personalities, but the man was like an uncle to her, and was a common sight in the Clinic where she sometimes helped out her dad.

"Hi, Stanley."

"Ah, Weiss, how do you like that there pipboy? Fit alright and everything?"

"Other than the hidden needle, it fits very well. Did you fix it up?"

"As a matter of fact I did. Glad you like it. Some may think the A series a bit basic, but I've always prefered them for their reliability."

"Well thank you very much."

"Don't mention it. Oh, and before you go, I got a little something for ya," with that he placed a red baseball cap on her head. She took it off for a bit to look at it. It had a white, curvy W on the front of it. "I figured you'd like it to help keep attention of your hair. And hey, the letter is right. Happy Birthday."

Oh yes, another thing about this world. It seems as though hair and eye colors are much more limited here. So where the blues and crimsons are gone, there's just the blondes and gingers. And while white hair is fairly common, it's only ever found in the elderly, which makes it a good thing to pick on her for. Granted, she never let it get to her, but the gift was very much appreciated. She gladly placed it on her head, not one to be overly rude. And besides, it was a very comfy hat.

Nothing else particularly of note happened over the next few minutes, other than Mrs Palmer, a very nice woman who was basically the Vault Grandmother, gave her a sweetroll, Beatrice came late and gave her a rather depressing poem, and Andy, a Mr Handy model of robot, completely butchered the cake with his saw blade arm. Why robot meant for housework had a saw blade as a standard attachment was beyond her, but she didn't bother with it. Butch tried to start some trouble, but luckily Officer Gomez stepped in before it could get ugly.

But it all got interesting when her dad received a message on his pipboy.

"Hey, I just got a message from Jonas," he told her. "He and I have been cooking up a little surprise present. He's waiting for you down at the Reactor Level. Go ahead, I don't think anyone will mind if you slip away for a few minutes."

"Alright, Dad. I'll be right down there!"

She really did like Jonas. Sure, he and her dad tended to, as her friends would have said, nerd out a lot when together, but he was a good guy.

While walking down to the level, she took a moment to think about how the layout of the vault. It was all very utilitarian, with the hydroponics and other things like school, clinic, and cafeteria on the second level, most of the housing on the third level, and the reactors on the fourth level. The first level was reserved for things like the atrium, Overseer's quarters, security department, and the Vault door.

She reached one of the many stairwells that met connect all of the levels, and descended. Luckily, she chose the right one, because within two minutes of walking from her party, she found the bespeckled man.

"What are you doing down here, young lady? I thought kids weren't allowed down on the Reactor Level," Jonas said in a fake serious voice.

"Then whyever was I sent down here then?"

"I'm fairly certain it had to do with you turning ten, squirt," he dropped the voice all together and patted her head. "Now how did the party go? At least tell me the cake was good."

"Oh, I'm sure it was. And then Andy got a hold of it." Jonas winced at the mental image of the robot cutting cake.

"Oh geez, sorry about that. But hey, I think I know something that will cheer you up!"

"Would it, by any chance, be this surprise I was told about."

"You would be right," a voice said from behind her. She whirled around and saw her dad holding a duffle bag. "Are you ready for your surprise?"

Despite herself, she was smiling. "As ready as I'll ever be."

"The Overseer gave you your pipboy, and you're old enough for work. So I figured you're old enough for this…" With that, he pulled a single item out of the bag, and Weiss' eyes widened. "Your own bb gun! It's a little old, but it should work perfectly."

"Oh my gosh," she said, looking it over in her hands.

"Jonas found it down here. It was in pretty rough shape, took us around three months to find the parts to get it working again. You know how hard it is to find a spring that small? Good thing Butch 'misplaced' that switchblade of his. Ha ha ha!" THat got Weiss and Jonas to start laughing, too.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" She wasn't sure why she got a bb gun for her birthday, but if it took them so long to get it working again, than it's the least she could do to use it. And besides, as much as she tried to deny it, she missed the use of firearms.

"So, what do you think? Want to go test it out?"

"What, here? But we can't shoot here!"

"You're right," Jonas said. "And that's why we set up a little something special." He motioned for them to follow through another door, and at the end of what looked like an old storage room, were targets.

"What do you think," her dad asked. "You can come down here and shoot anytime you want."

"This is so great! Thank you!"

"No problem, sweetheart."

"Now go on," Jonas said. "I want to see you shoot something!"

Weiss nodded, and went over to the locker turned on it's side. Remembering all of the lessons she had from Winter all those years ago, she held the but of her gun on her shoulder, and looked down it.

Inhale, exhale.

_Ding_

Inhale, exhale.

_Ding_

Inhale, exhale.

_Ding_

Three hits! They weren't bullseyes, but who cares!

It was at that moment that a radroach crawled into the firing range, and the birthday girl let out a frankly embarrassing sound. She always had a hatred of bugs, but upon learning of the roaches the size of Zwei, she realized that her fear was very well founded.

"It's all right, it's just a radroach. THink you can take care of it with your bb gun?" The white haired girl looked at her father, then the gun, and then the disgusting abomination. She closed her eyes, breathing a bit before opening them up and aiming at the bug.

Inhale, exhale.

_Splat_

It made a terrible sound, but she was happy with the result.

"Good job! That's one less radroach to deal with. Hey Jonas! Get a picture of me and the big game hunter!" The doctor's assistant smiled and grabbed a camera, motioning the father and daughter to get into a pose. Her dad pulled her to his side, and she was smiling wide.

"Alright, smile!" A flash went off, and the picture was taken, immortalizing this moment.

Weiss, despite all of the negatives, was loving life in Vault 101.

* * *

**Name: **Weiss Schnee

**Gender: **Female

**Age: **10

**Level: **1

**S:** 4

**P:** 5

**E:** 3

**C:** 7

**I:** 9

**A:** 7

**L:** 5

**Tags:**

\- [N/A]

\- [N/A]

\- [N/A]

**[Items]**

**Apparel**

_Child's Vault Jumpsuit_

_Washington Nationals Baseball Cap_

**Weapons**

_BB Gun_

**Aid**

_Sweetroll_

_The Silver Shroud (+1 Sneak)_

**Ammo**

_BB rounds x46_

* * *

**A/N: So I thought I would change a few things in Vault 101 like making the layout make a bit more sense and how a few of the interactions within change, which you will see later on. I tried to make Amata a bit like Ruby, but more sociable, because I just happen to like their dynamic, and now Pipboys can send texts. I will also be doing a few things with the Pipboy, seeing as how it really wouldn't have all the abilities it does as a game mechanic when in real life. Also, the baseball cap that Stanley gave Weiss is a real thing that I found to be a really cool coincidence, so I threw that in there.**

**As you can see, our favorite Ice Princess has mellowed out, for lack of a better term, during the past ten years in the Vault. Granted, ten years anywhere is bound to change at least anyone's attitude on something, and all she's really done so far is, well, be a kid with a loving and supportive parent. **

**And I don't know for certain if I'm willing to implement her Aura right off the bat, or make her work for it. It will be a massive advantage, but definitely something that people in the wasteland will notice. You guys can decide if you want, but it may not be a thing in the early parts of the story.**

**The story name comes from the Eric Carmen song "All by Myself." It's a beautiful song that you should go check out.**

**Chapter Question: Which version of the Vault Jumpsuit do you like, baggy or skin-tight?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Escaping an Imperfect Future**

* * *

**[Six Years Later]**

* * *

Weiss Schnee looked nervous. Or, well, as nervous as she would let people see. Normally, she was the epitome of calm and collected. She never allowed anything to get under her skin, and if it did, she wouldn't let anyone see.

Right now, though, she was nervous over what could be the most important test in her life.

The G.O.A.T.

Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test.

It was the test that, depending on your answers and psychological records, would determine which career you were best suited for. Was it a perfect system? No, no it wasn't, but it was undoubtedly important for her future.

"Well, as far as I can tell, you're a perfectly healthy sixteen year old girl. Go on, now. You've got a G.O.A.T. to take."

"If you say so, Dad," Weiss sighed. She was fiddling with her baseball hat, a sure sign on how stressed she was. She wore that thing nearly everywhere for some reason, but it did do a good job of covering her snow white, shoulder-length hair. Sure, she could have gone with her old side ponytail, but that got caught too many times in closing doors.

"Hey, it's not my call. Those are the rules. And come on, it's not so bad. Everyone has to take it. I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"If you're sure…"

"Of course I am. Take care, sweetie. Now get out of here. And good luck!" With that, Weiss placed her hat upon her head and left her dad's office.

_Come on, it's not that bad_, she told herself, waving to Jonas as they passed each other. _It's just like Dad said, everyone has to take it, and you know you'll do just fine! It's not like your skills are tailor made to be a fry cook, right? And besides, you've made bigger life choices earlier in your previous life. Remember trying to become a huntress?_

Indeed, nearly twenty relative years ago, she had chosen to dedicate herself to fighting monsters for humanity's' survival. Surely something as important as that would be much worse than this simple test, right?

But the cynical side of her pointed out some flaws in that plan. One, she had the freedom to actually choose that path, where this one would be forced upon you. And two, it's so much easier to fight monsters when you have invisible armor.

And isn't that an interesting point. For the past few years, she had attempted to activate her Aura, but to no avail. It was as if it was just… gone. But she could feel it there, in the back of her mind. It was still there, somewhere inside of her, but it just doesn't want to re-emerge. She could not manually bring out her Aura, nor did she feel comfortable with the idea of informing… anyone with her origins, which she sometimes had trouble believing.

But she shouldn't focus on that. Right now, she should focus on the sight before her.

"I can show you a real tunnel snake, Amata."

"Oh my god, just leave me alone you stupid greasers!"

Butch and his gang, the Tunnel Snakes, were harassing her friend Amata again, and right outside of the classroom no less!

"DeLoria," Weiss said in a very authoritative manner. The Tunnel Snake Leader stopped his verbal assault on her friend and their eyes met, the world seemingly stood still.

"Schnee," he responded, his voice equally just as standoffish.

There wasn't a lot that could stop Butch from doing what he wanted. Security, his mother, and Weiss were the only things on that list. Security should be obvious. His mother was quite possibly the only one he would listen to with no hesitation, no matter her attitude towards actual parenting.

And Weiss, now that one was a right mess. Since they were little, one could even say that they were rivals, but there was something a bit more to it than that. As much as they had butted heads in the past, not helped by how absolutely stubborn they both are, there was some level of respect between the two. It would be hard to see how they could respect each other when they were constantly at each other's throats, but it was true. And because of that, he begrudgingly listened when she talked.

It also helped that she was fully capable of laying him flat on his ass if he got too rowdy.

"I'd ask that you not harass my friend any more, DeLoria," Weiss finally said. "You do have more important things to worry about, like not ending up in the Plumbing Department."

His eyes narrowed at her, formulating his response. "Alright, alright, we'll leave the little princess alone. Wouldn't want another incident right now, would we?"

"I would most certainly hope not. Now please, move along. I'm sure Mr. Brotch is just waiting for you."

"Whatever you say, Schnee. Come on, boys, let's go ace this test." The other two agreed, saying something about Tunnel Snakes Rule as they walked to the classroom.

"Thanks for getting rid of them. Assholes," Amata finally said. "I just don't know why they won't leave me alone? Just because I'm the Overseer's daughter, I guess."

"Don't worry, Amata. After this, I'm going to have a little… 'chat' with Butch," Weiss told her friend.

"Ha, good luck with that! It would probably take the entire Vault to make him stop doing anything."

"I'm hurt that you doubt my charismatic abilities."

Amata snorted at that. "Okay, sure, whatever, now it's time to go have a computer choose the rest of our lives! Onwards to battle!"

Weiss just shook her head at Amata's antics, well used to how quickly she could change moods. It was definitely scary to see sometimes, but it was amusing most of the time.

The two girls walked into the classroom, Mr. Brotch nodding as they entered. When everyone was in their seat, the teacher went to the front of the classroom.

"Well, now that everyone has managed to find the classroom, we can finally get started. No talking, and keep your eyes to yourselves." A snort of laughter was heard from somewhere in the class. "Yes, I'm talking to _you_ Mr. DeLoria."

"Sure thing, Mr. Brotch," the gang leader responded.

"Unless anyone else has an insightful comment, let's get started."

And so it began.

The G.O.A.T. was mostly a multiple choice test, but left a fifth space open for anyone who didn't agree with any of the four given options, so that was great. Because she did not agree with a few of the answers at all.

_**Question 1:**_

_**You are approached by a frenzied Vault scientist, who yells, "I'm going to put my quantum harmonizer in your photonic resonation chamber!" What's your response?**_

_A) "But doctor, wouldn't that cause a parabolic destabilization of the fission singularity?"_

_B) "Yeah? Up yours too, buddy!"_

_C) Say nothing, grab a nearby pipe and hit the scientist in the head to knock him out. For all you knew, he was planning to blow up the vault._

_D) Say nothing, but slip away before the scientist can continue his rant._

_E) __

She almost immediately went for the first option, seeing as how she had no idea what would actually go down and she would never do any of the other ones, she was just too polite. Most of the time anyway...

_**Question 2:**_

_**While working as an intern in the Clinic, a patient with a strange infection on his foot stumbles through the door. The infection is spreading at an alarming rate, but the doctor has stepped out for a while. What do you do?**_

_A) Amputate the foot before the infection spreads _

_B) Scream for help _

_C) Medicate the infected area to the best of your abilities _

_D) Restrain the patient, and merely observe as the infection spreads_

_E) __

Weiss decided to go with the third option, seeing that as the most practical and possibly humane solution. That and she would want someone to do the same for her.

_**Question 3:**_

_**You discover a young boy lost in the lower levels of the Vault. He's hungry and frightened, but also appears to be in possession of stolen property. What do you do?**_

_A) Give the boy a hug and tell him everything will be okay _

_B) Confiscate the property by force, and leave him there as punishment _

_C) Pick the boy's pocket to take the stolen property for yourself, and leave the boy to his fate _

_D) Lead the boy to safety, then turn him over to the overseer _

_E) __

The first. She would feel horrible if she did anything else.

_**Question 4:**_

_**Congratulations! You made one of the Vault 101 baseball teams! Which position do you prefer?**_

_A) Pitcher _

_B) Catcher _

_C) Designated Hitter _

_D) None, you wish the vault had a soccer team_

_E) __

Seeing as how she already was on the team, Weiss just went with her current position, designated hitter. Turns out swinging a sword around in a previous life translates well to hitting small balls with a stick. Who knew.

_**Question 5:**_

_**Your grandmother invites you to tea, but you're surprised when she gives you a pistol and orders you to kill another Vault resident. What do you do?**_

_A) Obey your elder and kill the Vault resident with the pistol_

_B) Offer your most prized possession for the resident's life_

_C) Ask granny for a minigun instead. After all, you don't want to miss_

_D) Throw your tea in granny's face_

_E) __

This was such a messed up question! And for the record, she would politely decline before messaging Security immediately. There was a reason everyone could contact them in a moment's notice.

_**Question 6:**_

_**Old Mr. Abernathy has locked himself in his quarters again, and you've been ordered to get him out. How do you proceed?**_

_A) Use a bobby pin to pick the lock on the door_

_B) Trade a Vault hoodlum for his cherry bomb and blow open the lock_

_C) Go to the armory, retrieve a laser pistol, and blow the lock off_

_D) Walk away, and let the old coot rot._

_E) __

In all honesty, she would probably just mess with some of the wiring and coding for the door in order to get it open. It's not that hard once you know how to do it. A few years with a troublemaker as a best friend tends to make one learn many interesting things. And it is significantly harder to pick a Vault door's lock.

_**Question 7:**_

_**Oh, no! You've been exposed to radiation, and a mutated hand has grown out of your stomach! What's the best course of treatment?**_

_A) A bullet to the brain_

_B) Large doses of anti-mutagen agent_

_C) Prayer. Maybe God will spare you in exchange for a life of pious devotion. _

_D) Removal of the mutated tissue with a precision laser _

_E) __

She inwardly laughed at the third option before putting down the fourth one. And it's not like anti-mutagen would do much after the fact.

_**Question 8:**_

_**A fellow Vault 101 resident is in possession of a Grognak the Barbarian comic book, issue number 1. You want it. What's the best way to obtain it?**_

_A) Trade the comic book for one of your own valuable possessions _

_B) Steal the comic book at gunpoint _

_C) Sneak into the resident's quarters, and steal the comic book from his desk _

_D) Slip some knock out drops into the resident's Nuka-Cola, and take the comic book when he's unconscious_

_E) __

For this one, she very quickly chose the first option. All of the others seemed… a bit too excessive. Plus, some of the Remnant Schnee Business Sense was still there.

_**Question 9:**_

_**You decide it would be fun to play a prank on your father. You enter his private restroom when no one is looking, and...**_

_A) Loosen some bolts on some pipes. When the sink is turned on, the room will flood._

_B) Put a firecracker in the toilet. That's sure to cause some chaos _

_C) Break into the locked medicine cabinet and replace his high blood pressure medication with sugar pills _

_D) Manipulate the power wattage on his razor, so he'll get an electric shock next time he shaves_

_E) __

Hmm… this one was definitely a thinker. While some of these just seemed outright cruel, with the exception of the fire crackers, she remembered something Amata did to her father once when she was very big into pranks. Just wrap plastic wrap around the toilet seat, and wait for him to go to the bathroom. And in case he notices, put a layer of aloe vera underneath the wrap to make sure the seat is covered in it. It wasn't overly destructive on her dad's property, and was easy to clean up. Win-win!

_**Question 10:**_

_**Who is indisputably the most important person in Vault 101: He who shelters us from the harshness of the atomic wasteland, and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives?**_

_A) The Overseer_

_B) The Overseer_

_C) The Overseer_

_D) The Overseer_

_E) The Overseer_

This… this one had to be a joke. But it was an actual question. Maybe its reasons like this that make the Overseer not the Paragon of the Vault he wants to be seen as. EIther way, she presses the fourth option, because why not. It's not like this one was really going to decide her future. Unless she was eligible for multiple careers and this question was meant to pick which one she would receive. Right?

After a stressful ten minutes, and a few others turning in their tests, Weiss was finally ready to hand in her G.O.A.T. And now everyone was waiting on Freddie. Poor kid was too indecisive for his own good.

"Alright, everyone, let the computer go through all of your results and what not, and in five minutes, we'll see who works where. I'll be going in last name order, so there's that. Afterwards, you have the day of, to celebrate, or to pray, as the situation warrants."

And sure enough, within five minutes, Mr. Brotch was once again standing in front of the group of teenagers, looking over the results.

"Okay, first up, Amata Almodovar. Lest see… very well done. Looks like it's the Supervisory track for you."

"Ah, Butch. Can I admit that I've been waiting for this day for a long, _long_ time?Allow me to savor the moment." Laughing was heard from within the crowd, much to the boy's irritation. "Now lets see… Hmm, really? Interesting? You surprised me Butch, I didn't think you had it in you. Hairdresser, who woulda thought it." What followed was a long line of him reacting to the results before actually speaking them out. Almost everyone laughed a bit at Butch's career and Christine's reaction to being assigned to Maintenance.

And then it was finally Weiss' turn, after everyone else. Perks of having the Schnee name here, apparently you put up with stressful waiting.

"And last but not least, Miss Schnee. Hmm… well, that certainly is fitting. Pipboy programmer. Looks like Stanley is finally going to get some help after all."

Oh, well, that's… actually one of the jobs she was hoping for. That's a massive weight off her chest, and it felt great not having it looming over her head anymore.

"Man, that was stressful," Amata complained as they were leaving. "Wanna go grab a bite? I'm in the mood for something greasy and deep fried."

"I might just join in on that. But you're getting the food."

"Of course, of course. Wouldn't want my savior to go pay for her own food, now can I?"

"Whatever, you dolt," she laughed, lightly pushing her to the side. "After that, want to head down to the Reactor Level for a few rounds?"

"Oohhhhh, what's the challenge this time?"

Yes, when the two of them had free time, they usually stayed down in Weiss' shooting range, either talking or taking turns with the bb gun. It's gotten to the point where they started doing challenges for each other around four years ago, because they became that good at it.

"Hmm… I'm going to say spin around until dizzy, and then fire."

"You're on! Betcha I'll win this round!"

"Not if you're too greasy from our victory meal."

With that, the two of them went down into a familiar routine of friendly verbal poking at each other. After all, what should have been the most difficult moment of their young life was over, and that was cause for celebration.

* * *

**[Three Years Later]**

* * *

Alarms were blaring and something was shaking Weiss, pulling her from a rather strange dream. Honestly, if she overslept she was going to blame it on the Overseer. That man sends too much work her and Stanley's way.

"Wake up," someone shouted. Amata? What was she… "Come on, you've got to wake up."

"Ama- *yawn* Amata? What's wrong?" Now that she thought about it, her alarm wasn't usually that loud.

"What's going on?! My father's men are looking for you. They've already killed Jonas. You've got to get out of here!" And if she wasn't awake before, she _certainly_ was now.

"What! Jonas is dead! What the hell is going on!" Usually she wasn't one for cursing, but telling her first thing in the morning that Jonas was dead was obviously not the start of a normal day.

"It's your dad. He's left the Vault! My father thinks Jonas helped him escape. So he had his men…" What? Her dad left? But that shouldn't have been possible! They've told us for years that the outside was inhospitable, especially her dad, and now he just up and left! "My God, they killed him… They just beat him, and beat him, and wouldn't stop…" Amata looked about ready to break down into tears, and the compassionate side of Weiss took over, momentarily ignoring her own internal crisis.

"Oh my God… Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she sniffed. "Don't worry about me. I'm just sorry you had to find out like this. I know Jonas was your friend. But we've got to go, now. My father's men will be here any minute!"

"Yeah, you're right. I can't stay here, but where...?"

"I'm sorry, but I think you'll have to follow your dad. You'll have to escape the Vault." Her brain momentarily froze. Yes, it was the most logical option, and would most certainly let her get ahold of the answers for why this whole mess started, but to go outside? She hadn't been outside in nearly twenty years, and has had it ingrained in her mind that going outside was a death sentence.

Amata continued. "Listen… maybe it isn't any of my business, but didn't your dad tell you that he was leaving?"

"N-no, he never said anything." And that was probably what stung the most. So far, throughout this life, her dad has been truthful, always answering questions to the best of his abilities, even about mother… But for him to just, up and leave, with no reason as to why? That hurt. It hurt more than she thought it would.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I'm sure he had his reasons. Maybe Jonas was supposed to explain everything to you? But it doesn't matter.. I can help you escape. I have my own plan!" Despite the situation, Weiss felt a smile rise on her face, thinking of all the times her friend said those famous words before nodding for her to continue. "Okay, so there's a secret tunnel that leads directly from my father's office to the exit. You'll have to hack the computer in his office to open it, and we can use the radroach infestation as a distraction. Here, use these to get into his office. That's how I always get in," she said, handing the white haired girl a bunch of bobby pins and a screwdriver.

"Sounds like a- wait, radroaches?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, they're everywhere right now. I think they came in when your dad left." Oh great, so not only did she have to run away from Security, but now she had to deal with giant bugs the size of a corgi? This is just great… "Oh, one more thing, I stole my father's pistol. I hope you won't need it, but you'd better have it just in case."

"No, you keep it," she said almost reflexively before she thought it over in her head. For one, it was very useful to have a firearm on you, but she didn't plan on actually using it. But Amata might need it too! After all, all the combat experience she's had is- "I can use my bb if I run into any roaches, and I can run away from Security." It wasn't perfect, but it would have to do.

"A-are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Now get going. I'll meet you by the exit. Be careful!"

"Alright. Good luck Weiss!" And with that, her friend left.

Weiss quickly rushed to her desk to grab her bb gun when she noticed something.

There was a satchel on there with a note.

She nor her father ever owned one.

Reluctantly, she picked up the note and read it.

_Just a little gift from me to you! Put as much stuff in here as you want and it will all fit! Think of it as your own personal hammer space, just think of what you want and you'll get it. I updated your pipboy to have an inventory, just incase you forget what you got! And as a little tip, might want to get that bobblehead from your dad's office. May come in handy~!_

_Love,_

_R.O.B._

Nineteen years. Nineteen years, no word from that asshole and all of a sudden it's 'here, have an impossible bag, bye bye!' She just… stood there, trying to make sense of it. Eventually, Weiss decided to test it out. She looked at the baseball bat lying there next to the desk, and grabbed it. At best, this bag could hold her head, if that. So, she put the bat in the bag, slowly lowering it.

Until the meter long stick of wood disappeared, the bag weighing no less than before.

Breath in. Breath out.

_Don't focus on how this shouldn't work, and just put your everything into the_ magic bag_._

After loading up the _magic bag_ with all of her clothes along with some of her first aid equipment that was inside her room, she placed her hat on her head and checked her pipboy. Indeed, it now had an inventory feature that had not been there for the past nine years.

"Don't focus on it, don't focus on it," she was telling herself as she was leaving her room. And while she was on the subject, she may as well swing by the clinic. It should be on the way to the Overseer's office.

"You!" Oh no, a guard was at the end of her hall, baton out and headed straight for her. She froze for a second, not wanting to get into a fight so soon. It had been years since she fought seriously, and back then both she and her opponents had Aura.

But it seemed as if luck was on her side, as he was assaulted by multiple radroaches, taking his attention away from her as he fights them off with a baton, failing miserably. She takes this in stride and runs past the guard.

Down the twists and turns of the Vault, trying to get to the closest stairwell. _Honestly, who's idea was it to place our home so far away from anything else?_

Her inner monologue was interrupted when she ran into a very familiar person in her life.

"Weiss! Thank God I found you! You gotta help me," Butch nearly begged. "My mom is trapped there in the radroaches!"

Now, during the past three years, their relationship has developed slightly. There wasn't as much dumb stubbornness between the two of them now, and they would offer a hand when the other needed it, but they would never outright ask for help. Their sizable egos wouldn't allow it.

"I…" She didn't know what to do. On one hand, she had to get out of here, and the sooner she did that the sooner she could find her dad. On the other hand, her begrudging acquaintance was in front of her begging her for help, and she knew of his near crippling fear of the insects. But when faced with reality, there was only one option for her.

"Alright," she said, bringing up her bb gun. It should be enough to take care of a few of them. "Alright I'll help. Let's go save your mom."

"Oh thank God, thank you" he sighed, guiding the two of them towards his home. "I didn't know what to do. You're the best!" Two minutes passed, the two of them racing to

There, in the middle of the room, was Ellen DeLoria surrounded by three of the insects, disgusting bite marks all over her skin and her Vault Suit shredded in places. In all honesty, Weiss didn't like her all that much. She reminded Weiss too much of her first mother, with none of the positive memories to associate to her. But that didn't mean that she would leave her to die.

She takes three shots, taking care to only hit the bugs. Sure, they won't kill the woman, seeing as it doesn't hurt all that much to get shot by a bb gun, but she doesn't want to hurt her.

Inhale, exhale.

_Splat!_

Inhale, exhale.

_Splat!_

Inhale, exhale.

_Splat!_

All three were dead, and Ellen was safe. Mother and son embarrassed, happy that the two of them were safe. This sight only made Weiss' heart tighten. It made her even more determined to find her own parent.

Before Weiss left, Butch did something she wasn't expecting. He gave her his leather jacket. If Weiss was known for her hat, then Butch was known for this. She was… extremely touched by the gesture, and put it on as she left.

It took too long in her opinion to arrive at one of her first destination. Weiss entered the Clinic, trying to find the medical cabinet that she knew her dad held all of the medical supplies. She wouldn't take all of them, but would take in a fair amount. And then, on his desk, was what R.O.B. said would help her out. It was always just a funny little thing she played with when she was in the office, waiting for her dad to be finished with his work.

The bobble-head was of the Vault Boy, the mascot for Vault-Tec, holding a comically large syringe, the inscription saying "_A smart man knows a bandage only hides his wounds." _. She took a few breaths before grabbing it. And then her head started hurting. It wasn't the bad kind of hurting, it was more akin to when you hear a loud noise when you're suffering from a hangover. In her mind, she just had information… pushed into her head. The correct way to deal with a number of common illnesses and how to identify some of the bigger ones. And after a minute, it ended. When she recovered Weiss looked at the offending item with a blank stare. "I really hate you," she said before putting it into her bag.

It took a longer to make it to the Atrium floor, what with avoiding all of the guards. Speaking of… she saw them gun down a couple, and it just… She almost…

No. No, don't focus on it. Push it down, deep down. We can deal with this later, but for now, we need to go!

Eventually, she did make it to where the Security HQ for the Vault was, which she had forgotten was on the only path to the Overseer's office. And when she did get there, a surreal, and not in the good way, scene played out in front of her.

"No, Daddy," she heard Amata yell. When she looked into the window, she saw her friend in a chair, the Overseer and Head of Security in front of her, interrogating her. "I am _not_ telling you where she is!"

"Please be reasonable Amata. All I want to do is simply have a chat with your friend," the Overseer told her.

"Like you had a _chat_ with Jonas?"

"I didn't like how that ended, but it was for the good of the Vault."

"Sir, this is getting us nowhere," Officer Mack said. "Let me handle this. I can get her to talk."

"G-get back," came the worried cry of her friend. The next few seconds was full of shouting, and it all ended with a loud gunshot. Weiss feared for the worst before she saw Amata running out of the room, blood splattered across her face, with the Overseer soon following.

Weiss waited a bit before entering the security room. And what she saw severely shocked her, and threatened to make her throw up. Officer Mack was laying on the ground, a bullet hole going right through his face, blood pooling on the once pristine floor of the Security lobby. The white haired girl forced herself to look away from the sight, forcing those unpleasant feelings into the back of her mind to deal with later.

From the corner of her eye, she saw a sign. "_Armory."_ She got an admittedly wicked smile and walked that way. Inside of the room was exactly what one would expect. And with a passion, she stuffed as much weapons and ammo as she could into her bag. She even stole a few pairs of security armor, putting one on over her vault jumpsuit and under the Tunnel Snake jacket. She rationalized it with the fact that she didn't know what was outside right now, and the fact that this would severely lower the amount of firepower the Overseer could use on the residents of her home.

And when she was exiting the armory, she saw something. The prisoner cell door was open. Curiosity got the best of her and she looked inside. She instantly regretted it.

Tied up on a chair in the middle was her friend Jonas. Or, what once was Jonas. Now all that was left was a beaten, bruised and bloody corpse, barely recognizable if it weren't for his lab coat. This time, she really did throw up, the bile mixing into the blood on the floor to make a truly sickening smell. So many thoughts were going through her mind, ranging from "Oh my God, what happened to Jonas!" to "How could this happen?!"

She looked away from the sight and saw a table on the side. On top of it were multiple objects, one of which was a holotape. In order to get her mind off of what she just saw, she uploaded it to her pipboy, downloading the message before playing it, built in earphones connected to the wrist-mounted computer. And she heard her dad's voice.

_{Hold on Jonas, I need to record this first.}_

_{I don't really know how to tell you this. I hope you'll understand, but I know you might be angry. I thought about it for a long time, but in the end I decided it was best for you not to know. So many things could have gone wrong, and there's really no telling how the Overseer will react when he finds out. It's best if he can blame everything on me. Obviously, you already know that I'm gone. It was something I needed to do. You're an adult now. You're ready to be on your own. Maybe someday, things will change and we can see each other again. I can't tell you why I left or where I'm going. I don't want you to follow me. God knows life in the Vault isn't perfect, but at least you'll be safe. Just knowing that will be enough to keep me going.}_

_{Don't mean to rush you, Doc, but I'd feel better if we got this over with.}_

_{Okay. Go ahead. Goodbye. I love you.}_

Weiss stood still. She let everything in that message sink in, dissecting it mentally. Her dad had known that the Overseer would have reacted, but he probably didn't expect him to react _this_ badly. But what was important was that he didn't want her following him.

Now, she had two options here. One, stay here like he wanted her to and potentially meet the same fate as Jonas. Or two, go out into the unknown outside the Vault and attempt to find him against his wishes.

Oh well, she never went through a rebellious streak when growing up this time around, so might as well start late than never.

She looked at Jonas' broken face and closed his glassy, dead eyes. "I'm sorry this happened, Jonas," she whispered before turning around, continuing her mission.

She didn't see a lot going to the Overseer's office, and it was worrying her a bit. It was wearing on her nerves as she walked up to the door. She went to the access panel, and began going to work. When it finally opened, she walked inside. It was spartan in nature, with the sole exception of an old photo of him and Amata when she was a younger, both having serious faces. It was unnatural for Weiss to see her extremely lively friend look so stoney. But that wasn't important. She had to figure out the password to his personal terminal. Luckily, she had training in similar programs.

"Thank you Stanley," she muttered as she quickly found out the password. It was _Safety._

There were a number of interesting files on the terminal, so she just downloaded them all onto her pipboy. It had massive amounts of storage that she was barely using a fraction on with all of her music. But the most important one was the code for the Vault Door. That turned out to be _Safehouse_.

Using the terminal, she opened the way to the Vault Door. The floor beneath her rumbled, and as she was backing away, a portion of the floor pulled slid away while the desk was elevated. When she looked down, there was a stairwell that she could only hope was to the Vault Door.

"Certainly didn't expect this," she muttered as she descended. It was a blank hall with only a few roaches inside. She took this time to test out one of the pistols.

Inhale, exhale.

_Splat!_

It had a bit more kick than she was used to, but she was still accurate enough with it. She repeated the process a few more times, becoming used to the weapon. Eventually, she ran into a seemingly dead end, with the only thing of note being a small switch on the side. Feeling like this was all too easy, she flipped it, watching as the wall fell before her.

She entered the entrance area, the massive door and it's opening system taking up most of it. As she neared what she could only hope was the control panel, she made checked to make sure that she knew the passcode.

"Weiss," a cry from behind said girl caused her to turn around with record speed.

"Amata," she said, rushing to her friend, giving her a hug. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine," she mumbled. "I… I killed… No, not going to focus on that. You have the password for the door?" Weiss nodded. "Alright then. Let's get this thing open."

She entered _Safehouse_ into the keypad and, with a nod from Amata, pressed the activation button.

The blaring intensified, as a massive arm swung down and attached itself to the gear shaped door. And when it pulled, the terrible sound of metal scraping on metal caused them to cover their ears. When it pulled back enough, the door rolled on it's side, out of the way as it showed darkness.

"I-you did it," Amata gasped. "You actually opened the-" Banging on the door behind them interrupted her. "Oh, no, security! Quick you have to get out of here! I'll close the door, make sure they don't get you!"

"Amata-"

"No, Weiss! Go find you're dad. Promise me that you'll find him!"

"I… I promise." Amata pulled Weiss into a brief, tight hug.

"I'll miss you," she said.

"Me too."

They let go of each other, and Weiss trying her hardest not to look back.

Weiss exited the Vault, into a small cave before tripping on something. _Well isn't this a nice start to a journey…_ She stopped her monologing when she saw exactly _what_ she tripped over.

Skeletons. Dozens of skeletons surrounding her, a few bony hands holding ancient signs with barely legible writing on them. "Let us in assholes!" "We're dying out here!" "At least save my children!"

The massive Vault Door closed behind her, the terrible metal on metal echoing throughout the cave. Then, the massive steel door closed, a 101 painted in yellow on it.

There was no going back.

She took a small breather, standing up. It was a small cave, not even a hundred feel long. She took nervous steps towards the end of it, where there was an old wooden door. She was close to hyperventilating, nervous about stepping outside for the first time. She hesitated, her hand on the door. It took a few seconds for her to pick up her nerves, and tore the door open.

Weiss squinted, her eyes having trouble adjusting to natural sunlight for the first time. And when she could finally see, her breath was taken away from what was in front of her.

It was not as desolate as she had once thought, what with the shrubbery growing around the rocky entrance of the cave, and in the distance was the silhouette of a ruined city, what could only be the Washington Monument still standing proudly amongst the steel skeletons that were once buildings in a country's capital. It was a beautiful sight, one that she doubted that she would ever forget.

Weiss Schnee had finally entered the Capital Wasteland.

* * *

**Level Up!  
New Perk: Daddy's Girl (rank one) - **Just like dear old Dad, you've devoted your time to intellectual pursuits. You gain an additional 5 points to both the Science and Medicine skills.

* * *

**Name: **Weiss Schnee

**Gender: **Female

**Age: **19

**Level:** 2

**S:** 4

**P:** 5

**E:** 3

**C:** 7

**I:** 9

**A:** 7

**L:** 5

**Tags:**

-Barter

-Science

-Small Guns

**[Skills]**

Barter: 34

Big Guns: 11

Energy Weapons: 15

Explosives: 15

Lockpick: 15  
Medicine: 38

Melee: 18

Repair: 23  
Science: 50

Small Guns: 40  
Sneak: 20

Speech: 19  
Unarmed: 11

**[Items]**

**Apparel**

_Tunnel Snake Jacket_

_Vault 101 jumpsuit x10_

_Vault 101 utility jumpsuit x5_

_Vault 101 Security Armor x5_

_Vault 101 Security Helmet x5_

_Washington Nationals Baseball Cap_

**Weapons**

_10mm pistol x15_

_Baseball Bat_

_BB gun_

_Police Baton x15_

**Aid**

_Med-X x15_

_Radaway x15_

_Rad-X x15_

_Stimpacks x50_

**Misc**

_$200 Pre-war money_

_Bobby pin x15_

_Bobble-head__ \- Medicine_

**Ammo**

_10mm rounds x850 _

_BB rounds x50_

* * *

**Answer: I'm partial to the skin tight variants of the Vault suits myself. Really screams "government project" to me.**

**So now she has entered the great outdoors…She's going to regret that. Seriously though, of all the wastelands in the games, the Capital Wasteland is only beaten by Fallout 1 for the worst setting to be in.**

**I had a really hard time writing the escape part of this. I think it might be the fact that it goes by a bit too fast and just feels… rushed in the game, and it feels rushed in this chapter. I will try my hardest to make sure that this isn't always the case, I can't promise that there won't be moments where they won't be rushed. **

**Now before you all go off on me about the bag, let me just say that it won't really be all that important. She would need to be able to actually fit items into the bag in order for her to carry it. So she won't be carrying around full sets of Power Armor or Fat Mans any time soon. Speaking of power armor, just keep in mind that I envision a lot of what I'm writing if it were Fallout 4 graphics. **

**This is also going to be the last time I show off Weiss' character sheet and inventory unless you guys really want it. Until then, just have fun with the perk gains showing off her growth.**

**Chapter Question: What is your favorite Fallout 3 weapon? **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Capital Wasteland**

* * *

Words cannot accurately describe what Weiss Schnee was feeling at that moment.

On one hand, her dad basically abandoned her, one of her friends and a whole mess of people were just killed, and she was outside the Vault.

On the other hand, she was finally outside the Vault. Nineteen years. That was how long it has been since she had felt the sun shining on her face, the wind blowing on her skin. Her eyes were having trouble adjusting to natural light for the first time in her new life, but she could see her surroundings well enough.

She was standing on a rocky ledge, a sign nearby that said _Scenic Overlook._ It was true, though. The sky was a muted yellowish color, and the world around her had a greenish tint if she focused on it, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the sight. Or the horror of how it came to be.

She stood there for who knows how long, just staring at the sight of the once beautiful city turned metal skeleton in the distance.

After a while, when she her eyes finally adjusted to the natural sunlight, she left the outlook to the broken road underneath.

To the right… wasn't really anything. Just what looked like a busted highway and a large pile of rocks. To the left the road continued, going until it hit a small, also skeletal town in the distance. _I wonder why_, she sarcastically thought. But at least it looked close. It had to be a ten minute walk away, at least.

So, adjusting her armor underneath the leather jacket, she set of.

It was… nice, to be outside once again, to feel all of the nice things that came with the great outdoors. Granted, the air was feeling a bit more sickly to breath in than how she remembered it, but Weiss chalked that up to living with nothing but air conditioning for the last nineteen years and the centuries it had went through since atomic fire covered the world. Was there a rest of the world? She had always wanted to visit this Sweden place since reading about it a few years ago, but that may have been destroyed as well. Hell, for all she knew, it may have only been America and China that destroyed each other. Then again, one cannot go through war without having allies, so they might have destroyed those countries too…

Ugh, this was giving her a headache! Why did she have to be cursed with such curiosity? It was like when she kept watching those lore videos for a tv show she liked in Remnant.

She didn't think much of Remnant nowadays. And why would she. She had been told in her previous life there that, when her time here was up, she'd go back there. And for years, while part of her said that it couldn't wait to go back, another part… didn't. It didn't want this new Weiss, one who had a happy and mostly content life in the Vault. It hadn't been perfect, but then again no life really is. In that one, she was trained to fight of monsters for hours on end for her prospective career as a Huntress. In this one, the most she had to deal with was the Overseer putting too much onto her and Stanley's plates again with programing and fixing various things around the Vault. Hell, she even had a fair amount of pudge on her, which would never have been there before! It was something the endless hours of training to survive in that world would never had allowed.

But she liked that, that sense of security. It was her life, a stable one that had just had been fine just yesterday.

And now she had to go through a post-apocalyptic Wasteland to chase after her dad who had left under mysterious circumstances! It was like one of those stories that Amata had loved.

Amata…

Would she be okay? She had killed Officer Mack. Granted, he was a massive tool that everyone practically hated, but she took his life. Even Weiss hadn't killed anyone in either life. From what she often heard and read about, killing someone else, especially the first time, was a horrendous thing on the psyche. And she had decided to push it down and focus on helping here escape! That could not have been healthy at all for the young woman!

She was brought out of her frankly hippocratic thoughts by… music?

It was a shrill music, and was getting louder the closer she got to the demolished town. It almost like a whistle, or a flute.

When she entered the town proper. If it could even be called that anymore, she saw the source. A flying orb, with antenna sticking out of it, hovering four feet in the air. Of all of the thoughts plaguing her mind at the moment, the most prevalent one would have to be "why is it playing music?" She had been around Andy to know how robots function, and figured it worked off a similar propulsion system as the Mr. Handy.

Part of her was thinking that it could have been a radio broadcast and this was simply just a floating radio, as it was the most likely scenario. She checked her pipboy and, low and behold, the only radio station she new growing up, the Vault 101 PA System was no longer alone in that section, but was now blacked out signifying that she could no longer access it. Right above it was the Enclave Radio. She took a leap of faith and selected it. Now, both the flying radio and her wrist-mounted computer were blaring the same song. And before she turned it off, the music stopped and a man's smooth voice played out.

_{I've been thinking quite a bit lately about something we can all relate to, something that is unquestionably, inescapably… American. I am referring, of course, to our great national pastime - baseball. Or so it had been. That's right, America. Before we were devastated by atomic war, each state had its OWN professional baseball team. Imagine, a perfect, cloudless day. The sun is warm and welcoming. And on the horizon, they appear, like knights of yore, armed with bats of ash and hickory. Their name? The Capital Congressmen. Their purpose? To make you, dear America, revel in the joys of sport and sunshine, if only for an afternoon. Now ask yourself this: What if the Capital Congressmen could live again? What if they could compete with baseball teams from Pennsylvania, or Maryland? Put your faith in John Henry Eden, great America, and baseball will live again! Comfort, recreation, healthy competition - all will live again! This country WILL live again!}_

And then it went back to another song, this one along the same lines as the one that played before.

That was… strange. Was it just an old, pre-war radio broadcast, forever stuck in a loop? It seemed likely, as everything around her was dead, not a single breath of life around. But she knew that this wasn't all there was to see. This had once been a country larger than possibly Vale, and if she was from Vault 101, then there had to be at least 100 more out there, with more people. Perhaps they had come together and reformed the American Government? But why talk about baseball of all things? She turned her thoughts away from that line of thinking, instead focusing on the surrounding area.

The skeletal frames of what once were houses, of what were once homes, surrounded her. Picket fences were destroyed, rotting away and overgrown with dead looking plants and their once pristine white paint barely even leaving any hints that it was there save for the occasional streak. Rusted mailboxes, bent in multiple places with holes and broken off pieces everywhere. On a few doorsteps were old suitcases, some even opened revealing old clothing that were more than a little torn and dirty, as though they were meant to be taken away, but left as if they couldn't afford to be taken. And perhaps they really were, as they were probably left when the world was ending.

Her attention was pulled from the depressing thoughts by a loud sound, nearly giving her a heart attack! It seemed as though one of the mailboxes could no longer stand on its own, rust and time having done it's damage. Out of morbid curiosity, she went to go inspect it. Inside were two things. One was an old magazine about boxing, and the other was a yellowed letter. Well, since no one else was going to read it, she decided to open it up whilst putting _Pugilism Illustrated_ into her _magic bag._

_Dear Safety-Conscious Citizen -_

_We are writing to inform you that your family was not selected for inclusion in your chosen Vault-Tec facility. Your deposit has been retained, and your application added to a waiting list for your preferred Vault. In the interest of your family's security in the event of a minor nuclear event, please consider relocating to one of these areas, where Vault-Tec facilities are available without a waiting list:_

_For a full list of Vault-Tec facilities with available accommodations, in exciting locales such as Oklahoma and newly-annexed Canada, contact your local Vault-Tec representative!_

_Vault-Tec wishes you and your family the best of luck in the uncertain future. Best regards;_

_Vault-Tec_

_Public Relations Dept_

_Washington, DC_

Now she wished she hadn't gained that damned curiosity that her friend was famous for! This was depressing, and made her think back to the skeletons in front of the Vault. Were they amongst those waving signs, dying while they pleaded for the safety of the ginormous underground bunker? Who knows, but it was a bleak line of thought.

She continued down the street, only really stopping at a Red Rocket gas station, and that was just from something odd. It was a large, rusted piece of metal that stood erect like a sign, and that was because that was exactly what it was. Standing out from the dark orange-red of the metal were words written in yellow paint.

**MEGATON =**

It looked to be relatively new, when compared to everything else in the town, and it gave her hope. Hopefully, this Megaton was a town, and towns meant people, which potentially made it easier to find information on where her dad went! Hell, maybe he was there right now!

She was about to rush off in that direction with nary a second thought when the sound of a tuba caught her attention. The eyebot seemed to be doing rounds in the town, and she watched it head off in the direction of a playground. Idly, she walked over to inspect it.

Weiss never remembered being this easily distracted. What had happened to her?

Broken playground equipment, for some reason more blackened than rusted, with one of those spinny things and the swing set being in by far the best condition, though that wasn't saying much. The seesaw was broken in half, and the monkey bars was missing most of it's bars at the moment. The swing had one of the chains broken off, leaving it laying on the ground pitifully. With a small push, she found the spinny thing was so rusted that it could not do what it was known for. Her mind, for some reason, made the mental picture of children playing on these, when they were still whole. What had those children thought when their world ended, when their parents pulled them away from their playground and leaving their toys behind?

_No, stop this, Weiss,_ she berated herself. _You need to go find dad, get answers, and head back into the Vault, and then everything can be the way it was! _

She was turning to leave when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement coming from what looked to be an elementary school.

_No, no, stop! What are you doing,_ she thought as she walked in that direction. _A potential town is in the opposite direction!_

_I'll just take a quick look, and then leave_, she told herself, justifying her quick looksee. _If anyone asks, blame Amata for her corruptive influence._

It looked to be just an ordinary school, just like the ones seen in old holotape movies. Rectangular in shape, with two floors and a large sign out front with what used to be a general announcement of things to come. Most of the letters were missing, and it looked like one side of the building was just gone, but it was definitely a school.

She saw another flash of movement, this one by the ruined side.

_Turn around_, the logical side of her said. _You can check it out later._

_But I want to see it now,_ the childish side replied. In the last few years, that side tended to keep winning, and it seemed like that trend would continue. Oh how she would wish it hadn't…

When she rounded the corner, she saw people. She would have been happy to see people outside the Vault, had they not been _enjoying_ themselves with what was clearly the dead body of a young woman, what used to be silvery hair now stained red and-

_Nononononononononononononono-_

"Hey boys," a female voice said, taking the two men's attention away from the body. "Looks like there's another rat scurrying around! Go get 'er!"

Weiss was paralyzed by what she saw in front of her until a gun was fired from the female. That kicked her into overdrive. She turned and ran. She ran from the people who would undoubtedly treat her the same way they treated that other girl!

"Yeah yeah! Run like the bitch you are!"

She just wanted to find her dad!

"Get back here! It's only going to hurt a lot! Hahaha!"

She didn't want to die!

"I'll tear your heart out!"

_I don't want to die!_

**Bang!**

When she felt pain in her arm, a bullet pierce her arm, she screamed out in pain. In a haste, she pulled out one of her own pistols. Maybe they would feel threatened and leave?

She turned around, gun in hand and raised it in hope that it would make then go away. She didn't want to fight. She didn't expect to see the terrifying face that the closest man was making, nor how his… extra appendage was still raised up. As a reaction, she did what was expected of any girl afraid and holding a gun.

She accidentally fired.

And she killed her first person.

Now, Lady Luck seemed to give her pity at that moment, possibly to make up for the frankly shity day she has been having, as the bullet tore through the raider's face, his pantsless body doing a sort of half flip before falling to the ground.

"Son of a bitch," the other raiders exclaimed at seeing their… I want to say friend, but loosely, die, and that gave Weiss enough time to scurry towards the building, whose doors were luckily unlocked. She slammed them shut, confident that she was now partially safe.

And then she realized that A) They had guns, and guns tended to beat wood. B) These doors were made of wood. And C) She was standing directly behind said door that was vulnerable to bullets.

She jumped to the side quickly, and for a brief second, she saw her surroundings.

Massive cages with multiple bodies inside, each at different stages of decay. Blackened bones were covered by fresh corpses, all ranging in sizes from big to, most sickeningly, small. Walls were painted in scorch marks and gore, painting a morbid picture of brutality and savagery. Torsos, legs, arms, heads were nailed to the walls, entrails strewn around like party streamers. And the smell of it all mixing together…

At that moment, a fire was lit within Weiss. Or, perhaps it was more accurate to say, the fire had reached its peak, for it was now burning more strongly than ever. It was a white hot, righteous fury like none she had ever felt. Her face contorted into an expression that could only be described as pure rage, and she shakily stood up, pistol in hand.

The Raiders decided that now would be a good time to follow after her and enter the building. But if they had been suspecting the same frightened girl was in there, they were sorely mistaken.

They were met by a furious woman with ample firearms training and a new found motivation to _end their lives._

She hadn't even bothered aiming, just raised her gun and fired.

**Splat!**

**Splat!**

Two shots, one through the male's eye and the other through the female's throat. They both crumpled to the ground, like puppets whose strings had been cut.

She felt no pity for what she did, for as much as she had thought otherwise, her surroundings had shown her that these things before her were no longer human. She couldn't bring herself to see them as even animals.

These were Grimm wearing human skin.

"Hey, what's going on," she heard a voice echo in the halls of the violated school.

_So there are more of them, makes sense. Beowolves always hunt in packs. Why should these be any different?_

She made sure her pistol had enough bullets, and did what any good Huntress should. She started hunting.

After the first floor was clear of these monsters, she headed towards the stairs. It seemed as though there were more than just these things masquerading as humans in the building, for two mangy looking dogs descended, going to attack her. They were ugly little things, most of their body being covered in lumps of fur instead of one steady coat, and the skin that was showing was covered in disgusting looking bumps.

While she was wholeheartedly a dog lover, she was forced to put these two down, as they were mighty insistent on tearing out her throat.

Upstairs, it seemed as though they were waiting for her, with five of the monsters sitting in a long hallway with their weapons drawn and ready to open fire.

Weiss got off two shots, killing one and injuring another in the neck before what she could only assume was the leader decided to use a flamethrower.

Weiss partook in the time honored tactic of hiding behind a nearby corner and wildly shooting from it, hoping to get lucky. She had no idea how to deal with fire right now, as her previous defense against it was no longer with her.

But she must have done something right, or waited them out long enough, because the flamer stopped. She quickly looked from her spot to see the raider with the flamethrower reloading it, with one of the other two charging at her with a spiked baseball bat, the other weilding a sawed-off shotgun. Weiss fired at the baseball bat raider, hitting him in his exposed chest before going back behind the corner as the one with the shotgun fired, but didn't think of ricochet as one of the pellets hit her leg, causing her to cry out in pain.

Weiss took a leap of faith and rolled out from her hiding spot, and aimed at the shotgun raider, hitting her in the head. She aimed for the flamethrower one, who was now done loading his weapon. And rather than carefully aiming and potentially being burned alive for it, she emptied her entire clip into his direction.

She… she did it. She had killed them all, and was relatively unharmed, minus two bullet wounds and a nasty bite from one of the dogs. She almost cried out in relief. Almost.

"P-please," something cried/whimpered, surprisingly not dead. Weiss turned to the source, and stopped dead in her tracks.

It- it was a boy. He had to have been no older than twelve. And he was clutching his wounded neck, blood pooling out. "Please save me! I don't want to…" He stopped short, before falling face down, more of his blood spilling out.

"Oh, oh god," she mumbled as she pressed her back towards the wall and began sliding down, her hands covering her face. "Oh God, what did I just do?"

Weiss had come to the full realization of what her actions meant.

She had just killed a human for the first time in her life.

She had just killed a child.

* * *

Weiss stood outside of the school, looking at her work. She had taken every body she could outside, and burned them in a massive bonfire just outside the school, using the flamer fuel to start it. It had taken hours, seeing as the raiders hadn't been kind enough to leave to most of them intact.

She hadn't given the raiders the same treatment, as they no longer deserved the title of human anymore. In her eyes, they were the same as the Grimm. Just monsters that needed to be put down. Yes, just monsters. No need to think of the morality of her choices, systematically killing everything in the building. No need to think of that raiderboy who had begged her for life as she looked him in the eyes when-

No, stop thinking about that! She felt sick again, when her mind focused on that moment.

She had looted basically everything inside of the former house of learning, now in possession of items ranging from medical supplies to ammunition to even a music book she found in one room that was mostly intact. She had been tempted to take some of the food there, seeing as how she had basically eaten nothing all day, but she didn't want to eat anything these monsters had touched. If she had, who knows how badly that would have affected her. The water too was of horrid quality, looking dirty and unhealthy, and if the geiger counter on her pipboy was accurate, more irradiated than a Nuka-Cola Quantum. If this is what those things were living off of, then it was no wonder they ended up this way.

As the fire died, she felt tired. More tired in her life than she has ever felt before. She turned away from the sight, and walked back towards the skeletal remains of Springvale.

The sun was setting, almost completely gone. Weiss knew she couldn't get to this Megaton this late, and had to take care of her wounds anyway, so she walked towards what looked to be the most intact building around.

Inside was a mess, with junk littered everywhere and furniture broken. There wasn't a lick of food or clean water in here, but she hadn't been suspecting there to be any. She mentally berated herself for not packing any food during her escape.

She walked to the mostly intact bed, and started removing her jacket and armor.

Through much pain, she had to use a pair of tweezers she pulled from the clinic to dig out the bullets within her, and was close to screaming bloody mary the entire time. After that, she used a bit of alcohol on her bite wound, and that one did cause her to cry out loud. She applied stimpacks to the injured areas.

Stimpacks were amazing things that boosted the natural healing rate of the human body to an almost impossible degree, with the bullet wounds possibly mostly gone in the morning and the bite should be fine within three days if she was careful.

But she wasn't thinking about all of that. Her mind was going over all of the events of today, of her escape and the situation with those… she didn't even know what to call them.

And so, she rolled up her jacket to use as a pillow, layed down, and played the message from her dad while she cried herself to sleep.

* * *

**Level Up!  
New Perk: Gun Nut (rank one) -** You are obsessed with using and maintaining a wide variety of conventional firearms. With each rank of the Gun Nut perk, you gain an additional 5 points to the Small Guns and Repair skills.

* * *

**Answer: I have always had a strange attraction towards the Metal Blaster. It's a cool laser gun with a badass name, and has been by my Wanderer's side since they first earned it.**

**Now, this chapter was the first time Weiss has seen the dark side of humanity, and even** _**that**_ **wasn't the worst of it. This is also going to very much affect Weiss in the future. I was originally going to have her go to Megaton at first, and completely avoid Springvale School all together, but I thought "No, lets have her witness the bad of the Wasteland before the good." **

**I also found it weird that Silver was completely fine even though she was living near the Springvale School. Like, what the hell. I know at least one of them would have seen her enter before, and they're known for being completely ruthless. And let's be completely real here, do you really expect raiders to give a fuck about necrophilia?**

**Weiss has also been separated from any serious threats for nearly twenty years, and the worst fights she would have been involved in during that time would be some occasional rounds with Butch. She is no longer used to the do or die situations of Remnant, and doesn't have the same fallbacks she used to. **

**Quick sidenote, but this story is now on Spacebattles! Don't know if that's significant but I think it's cool.**

**Chapter Question: Of all of the factions out in the Wasteland, who would you most likely join?**


End file.
